


I Fight For You

by Meribell64



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Ambition, Byleth doesn't know feelings, Confusion, Devotion, Exploration, F/M, Fluff, Golden Deer Route, I wrote this in an hour, Longing, Pining, Post-Time Skip, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Stargazing, The Great Fodlan Bakeoff, Verdant Wind route, no beta we die like Glenn, secret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:08:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24647716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meribell64/pseuds/Meribell64
Summary: Byleth takes some time to sort out her feelings. She realizes more than there ever was.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth & Claude von Riegan, My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 14
Kudos: 52





	I Fight For You

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello hello, last minute entry because apparently I don't know how to check junk mail BUT HERE WE ARE. I tried my best to hit all of these themes hosted by [The Great Fódlan Bake-Off!!](https://twitter.com/TGFodlanBakeoff)
> 
> Not great, no beta, here we are. I hope everyone enjoys!

Byleth lets out a sigh as she runs her fingers through her hair. She had enough of looking at reports for one day, or rather for weeks. She placed the papers down and stretched, hearing the audible pops of her spine and joints throughout her body. She wondered how long she had been sitting in her room now and when was the last time she even left it. A good while now she supposed. 

She gets up from her desk and picks up her coat, draping it over her shoulders as she heads out into the chilly air of the night. She relishes in the cold breeze that hits against her face, following down the pathway that leads towards the training ground. She makes that turn around the corner, making her way towards the Officer’s Academy.

_ Has it really been five years? _ A question she had asked before, but it wasn’t until now she really processed it. When she makes into the yard that was once lush with green grass and tiny flowers, she sees nothing but a yard full of dirt and weeds. The corner of her lips dipped dowards. 

It had been a couple of months now, but she still sees it as just yesterday that she was just teaching as a professor. She inhales deeply, holding it, before exhaling quietly through her mouth. She shouldn’t dwell on such sad thoughts. Time may have been stopped for her, but it continued with everyone else. 

She walks along the path of the classrooms, each one empty as the last. She stops at the last one at the end: the Golden Deer classroom. She peers into it, images of her student rummaging about flashing before her eyes. When she blinks, it’s gone in an instant. She feels her chest tightened and her hand goes up to lay flat against her chest, feeling for something that isn’t there: A heartbeat. 

The very reminder of this fact sets her off, a tinge of annoyance bubbling up inside her. She remembers her father’s diary:  _ No heartbeat. No heartbeat!  _ What the hell did Rhea do to her? Answers she won’t get until they find her. 

At this point, is it the frustration of not knowing bothering her, or the fact everything has been kept a secret from her? She doesn’t even know anymore and quite frankly, wasn’t quite if she wanted to know now. 

Before she knew it, she found her feet dragging her away to a different part of the monastery. She was lost in her thoughts, eventually settling over the last battle they had. It was rough. The combined efforts of the Golden Deer students (graduates now), sparse members of the Alliance soldiers, and what was left of the Knights of Seiros fought hard to defend Garreg Mach from the Imperial Army, who had caught wind of them taking it over as base. 

They were successful but not without consequences. Her eyes shut closed as she will never forget the shrill scream of Lysithea’s voice when a sword too close found home into her chest; the last sight of Raphael when he was skewered by multiple armored knights; Ignatz’s last breath when an arrow punctured through his lung; and finally… The last sight of Claude desperately clinging onto his wyvern before he--

No. 

It didn’t happen. She won’t ever let it happen again.

It wasn’t until she felt her face illuminated with light that she realized where she was now. The Star Terrace. 

She found herself at the center of it, looking up at the bright, beautiful, and breathtaking moon shining down on her, surrounded by the many stars. Byleth didn’t notice how tense her shoulders were until she relaxed them. Goddess, or rather Sothis, she must have been stressed as hell. Could anyone blame her though?

The ex-mercenary was thrusted in a sudden war and lost five years of her life, expecting to just jump right back in like nothing happened. And she did. She would do it all over again. 

The first sight of her fawns, now her grown deerlings, was all the reason she needed to join. She takes a deep breath again. The emotions that ran through her since she first woke up.

Fear was the first. Byleth didn’t know what it felt like until five years ago when she fell over the cliff. She felt it again when she woke up. 

Anxiety? She wasn’t sure what to call it, but she definitely would say it was the second emotion she felt with each step she took towards the monastery.

Confusion was the third she decided she felt when she looked at the state of the monastery. She truly thought that the villager was playing tricks on her (what a silly thought). 

Helplessness was the fourth she felt. Each building she passed by, the growing moss of disuse and lack of care that grew on the walls, the desolate aura that seemed to exude from the emptiness and lack of people-- she felt so alone and helpless that she couldn’t stop any of it. Another silly thought she realized it was. Was there anything she could have done to prevent it? Probably not. 

And lastly… relief. Relief that only washed over her when she saw him: Claude. The boy she always thought to be full of energy, but determined to make his dreams come true, was alive and he greeted her as warmly as ever as if a day hasn’t passed. 

Relief… somehow the word bothered her. Her eyebrows furrowed together, a small crease forming between them. Of course she was glad he was alive, yet something inside her said it wasn’t just relief. It was--

“Didn’t expect to see you here, Teach.” 

Byleth turns around at the sound of the voice. Claude. She relaxes, releasing a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “I needed a break,” she explained, unsure of the reason why she needed one, however, it wasn’t exactly a lie.

“I feel ya on that,” Claude said as he walks up to her side, taking a spot next to her as he looks up at the sky alongside her. “The night is beautiful tonight,” he comments.

She lets out a noncommittal hum as she looks at him. Her eyes couldn’t help but wander and explore the changes he went through five years. He was taller, noticeably stronger with bulkier biceps (undoubtedly from years of training he must have done over the years), his chest looks broader, and his legs seemed firmer and stronger as well as he stood tall with confidence: such a great contrast from his former self back in the Academy days. 

Yet, the biggest change she couldn’t help to focus on was his face. He was missing his braid, he grew a beard, his facial features seemed more chiseled, but his eyes… Just from his profile, she could tell there was a bit of a wistful look to it. She would pay a bullion to know what he was thinking right now. 

“I need to give you an apology, my friend,” he says suddenly to her.

She is broken out of her thoughts once again. “For what?” she asked, head tilted slightly to the side in curiosity.

“I know you just got back and here I am using you,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck as a sheepish look comes across his face.

“As if you weren’t already before?” She asked, turning her attention back to the sky. However, she could see the shocked look across his face at the corner of her eyes. The corner of her lips turns upwards. “Maybe try looking at my face more than my sword,” she chuckled quietly.

A small laugh, small yet powerful, bubbled up from his chest as he rested his hands on his hips, briefly looking towards the ground. “I should’ve known you would see right through me.” He gives her a grin and joins her in stargazing. 

They fell into a comfortable silence. 

Byleth found it strange, how his presence was enough to ease her restless mind. And it was his presence that made her desire all the more clear. She wants to end this war. She wants to give back the lost time to her beloved fawns. Times where they should have been growing up to follow their dreams, follow their paths, fight for their passions; the time to grow up into the individuals she knew they would be one day, not as soldiers. Not like her.

“Do you remember when we were at the Goddess Tower?” Claude suddenly asked.

She nods. Of course she does. They talked about their dreams and ambitions. 

“I still have those dreams you know,” he said. “My ambitions.”

She wished she knew what it was, he never told outright what it was. “I’m glad,” she says, unsure how to respond.

“What about you?” He turns to face her, emerald eyes meeting mint ones.

“What about me?”

“I remember you said you had a hope.”

Byleth takes a moment to think back to that night. She did. At the time it was hope, but now it feels like a faraway dream. A faraway dream she felt determined to devote herself to. “I did.”

“What did you hope for?” he asked, curiosity seeping into his voice. She hadn’t noticed how much closer he was now to her.

Byleth stares into his eyes as he does into hers, both trying to read off the other. Her hope was to see them all grow up. Her hope was to be by their side. By  _ his  _ side, actually. She feels that painful squeeze of her chest. As Byleth gazed into Claude’s eyes, she became lost in the beautiful they were, as if only accentuated by the light of the moon. 

Oh. 

She finally realized what she felt when she saw Claude. Happiness. Happiness to be with him again. 

How funny. An attraction she couldn’t dwell on then, and can’t dwell on now. How cruel fate was. 

“My hope…” she finally begins to speak.

Claude looked eager to know what it was.

After a moment of silence, she smiles softly at him. “Is for me to know, and for you to find out.”

Claude blinks once. Twice. He lets out a full bellied laugh as he throws his head back. He didn’t expect her to say something like that at all. He gives her a sharp, toothy grin-- a smile that reaches his eyes-- as he says, “I didn’t take you one as a tease, Teach.”

She lets out a hum as she turns away from him. “I only learned from the best,” she says, a playful lilt in her voice. 

They two fell into laughs again, before falling back into that comfortable silence they grew fond of. 

Byleth couldn’t help but laugh at herself mentally. Claude wanted to know all the secrets that she didn’t have, but now she wanted to hide all the secrets she did have from him. 

She’ll never tell him how many times she had to see the deaths of his fellow comrades or himself; never tell him how they die each time; never tell him the desperation she felt to save them all; and she’ll never tell him how much she loves him. Not now anyways.

Whatever dreams Claude did have though, she’ll support him. She’ll be by his side. Him and her darling deers. She’ll devote the life she has for them and make sure their dreams do come true, all the while of keeping the secrets she had to herself. 

She’ll fight in this war.

She’ll fight for them.

She’ll fight for him.

_ I’ll fight for you.  _


End file.
